Bar-Centric Neighborhood Gastropub Features Craft Beers

December 13, 2012|By LEEANNE GRIFFIN, Special to the Courant, The Hartford Courant

The people of Bristol wanted a pub. So Terry and Victor Lugo brought them one.

As downtown residents and supporters of the BristolRising revitalization movement, the Lugos were uniquely positioned to understand the city's wants and needs. When passionate locals began crowd-sourcing their ideas for future development, "brew pub" was one of the most requested businesses, Terry Lugo said.

But not wanting to incur the expense of brewing equipment, they settled on a bit of a compromise – a bar-centric neighborhood hangout with a casual yet distinctive menu, featuring fresh, local ingredients.

"We decided to offer a variety of craft beer, and came up with the idea of the craft-inspired gastropub," Lugo said. "It was kind of a new term for the people of Bristol."

Barley Vine's attention to detail goes beyond buzzwords, though. This is a place where even the bar snacks are carefully fashioned: housemade "cracker jack" popcorn, praline-candied bacon and bison jerky, and an ever-changing draft list that attracts beer aficionados from far and wide. Cocktails start with fresh-squeezed juices, burger meat is ground daily and breads are baked in-house, courtesy of a blazing wood-fired brick oven.

To head the kitchen, the Lugos hired executive chef David Pianka, who joined the Bristol operation after his family closed their Avon restaurant, Papacelle. The tavern-style menu is a divergence from high-end Italian cuisine, but a welcome one for Pianka, who says he's enjoying the creative process.

Desserts change frequently, with a rotation of tarts, cookies, and sweets reflecting the season. Pianka said recent offerings have included baked stuffed apples and apple cranberry fritters rolled in ginger sugar.

The bar remains Barley Vine's focal point, with 14 craft-beer draft lines (and another 30 by the bottle,) a global selection of wines and an emphasis on artisanal and small-batch spirits. Manchester's own Onyx Moonshine is a favorite here.

The beer list has caught the attention of brew fanatics well beyond Bristol, Terry Lugo said, thanks to websites like BeerAdvocate and CT Beer Trail. Because of that, the staff keeps the restaurant's Facebook page updated with regular photos of the draft list and current taps.

"People follow what we have on tap," she said. "They'll come in specifically because we have it; they know we won't have it for long."

Barley Vine's late September opening marked more than a year's worth of planning and construction for the Lugos, New York natives with backgrounds in sales. As food lovers, they'd considered other hospitality projects, like a bed and breakfast. But the community aspect of the pub was particularly attractive, and they fell in love with the historic Main Street structure that now houses the 94-seat eatery.

"It was a shell of a building," Terry Lugo said, but with support from their landlord, they transformed it into a cozy, industrial-chic space with exposed brick walls, tin ceilings, polished wooden tabletops and comfortable couches for lounging.

And they're hoping other businesses will follow suit, as Bristol moves toward a renaissance: apartments, retail space, more restaurants and bars and other features designed for a vibrant downtown scene.

"We're feeling like pioneers in the downtown area," Terry Lugo said. "That's the root of building down here. We feel that having more restaurants, bars and shops on board will be great [and] get us the crowd we want."

In its first two months, Barley Vine has already built a crowd of regulars, including a group of "Geeks Who Drink" for weekly Wednesday night trivia events.